Quotes from Daniel H. Pink

they found "that enjoyment-based intrinsic motivation, namely how creative a person feels when working on the project, is the strongest and most pervasive driver.

inherent tendency to seek out novelty and challenges, to extend and exercise their capacities, to explore, and to learn.

First, we can distance through space. The classic move is known, unsurprisingly, as the "fly-on-the-wall technique.

The second way to self-distance is through time. We can enlist the same capacity for time travel that gives birth to regret to analyze and strategize about learning from these regrets.

The third method of self-distancing, as Julius Caesar and Elmo teach us, is through language. Kross, Ayduk, and others have carried out some fascinating research concluding that "subtle shifts in the language people use to refer to themselves during introspection can influence their capacity to regulate how they think, feel, and behave under stress.

Leave an imprint. You're young now. But when you get older and look back at your life, you'll ask yourself a whole bunch of questions. Did I make a difference? Did I contribute something? Did my being here matter? Dud I do something that left an imprint? I'm not asking you to end hunger or repair the ozone. But I am asking you to think about your purpose --- to recognize that your life isn't infinite, and that you should use your limited time here to do something that matters.

Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one's sights and pushing toward the horizon.

A world of flat organizations and tumultuous business conditions—and that's our world—punishes fixed skills and prizes elastic ones.

If you have a broken heart, it means you have done something big enough and important enough and valuable enough to have broken your heart.

Perhaps you're familiar with the First Law of Holes: "When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging." And perhaps you've ignored this law.

Only contingent rewards—if you do this, then you'll get that—had the negative effect. Why? "If-then" rewards require people to forfeit some of their autonomy.

The psychological concept is known as "escalation of commitment to a failing course of action." It's one of the many cognitive biases that can pollute our decisions.

The desire to do something because you find it deeply satisfying and personally challenging inspires the highest levels of creativity, whether it's in the arts, sciences, or business." TERESA AMABILE Professor, Harvard

A]n important takeaway from our study for corporate executives is that communications with investors, and probably other critical managerial decisions and negotiations, should be conducted earlier in the day."11

in counties containing teaching hospitals, fatal medication errors spiked by 10% in July

single largest motivator was making progress in meaningful work.

including a rhyme can enhance the processing fluency of your listeners, allowing your message to stick in their minds when they compare you and your competitors

In the middle, we relax our standards, perhaps because others relax their assessments

A little kid's life bursts with autotelic experiences. Children careen from one flow moment to another, animated by a sense of joy, equipped with a mindset of possibility, and working with the dedication of a West Point cadet. They use their brains and their bodies to probe and draw feedback from the environment in an endless pursuit of mastery. Then—at some point in their lives—they don't. What happens?

We don't always agree on the boundaries between those domains. But when we forsake what we believe is sacred for what we believe is profane, regret is the consequence.

Connection regrets sound like this: If only I'd reached out.

Expending energy trying to motivate people is largely a waste of time," Collins wrote in Good to Great. "If you have the right people on the bus, they will be self-motivated. The real question then becomes: How do you manage in such a way as not to de-motivate people?

are we wired to be passive and inert? Or are we wired to be active and engaged?

Happiness is love. Full stop.